Google Phone

Confirmation that Google has booked two stands at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona in February 2008 has prompted suggestions that Android-based handsets will be in strong evidence at the event.  Extrapolating from the sighting of an HTC-designed reference handset spotted by Gizmodo earlier this month, APC Magazine believes that Google will be looking to make a definite showing at the mobile-focused event so as to whet the public and industry appetites prior to commercial Android-based models launching in the second half of the year.

“You can bet that if Google’s handset partners lift the covers on their Android phones during the Mobile World Congress expo, which kicks off on February 11th in Barcelona - or if Google itself trots out a flock of phones to impress this annual powerhouse gathering of the global mobile industry (the company has booked two stands on the expo floor) - that these will be shiny snazzy models endowed with a very high ‘cool’ factor” David Flynn, APC Magazine 

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Just as the creatively overhauled Google interface for the Apple iPhone was heralded as the search company “practising” for their own Android platform, the news that Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo is considering using Google-powered search and email functionality in their own handsets will likely be viewed as further evidence of paving the way for 2008’s gPhones.  Sources quoted in the Nikkei business daily claimed that from as early as Spring DoCoMo subscribers with compatible handsets will be able to access their Google-based email, calendar, photos and searches through the i-mode network.

“We are currently studying the possibility of an alliance in search services with domestic or overseas partners, but nothing has been decided yet” Hiroto Nakagawa, DoCoMo spokesman

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As if the search giant didn’t have enough to do right now, what with fixing the Android SDK and staving off search and mapping rivals, Computerworld’s Stacy Collett has gathered together a number of analysts and set them the challenge of predicting what Google will do next.  The results vary from the predicable (setting up or buying another social network) to the outlandish (buying an Ad Agency), with stops made at the dull (local reviews) and debatable (giving away ad-supported PCs) along the way.

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In a release from the FCC earlier this week, Google is confirmed as one of the 700MHz spectrum would-be bidders, together with mainstream telcos Verizon Wireless and AT&T.  The list of interested parties - separated into those who have fully completed their applications [pdf link] and those who must still do so prior to the January 4th deadline [pdf link] - does not indicate which spectrum chunks each company is interested in, but Google (listed under ‘Google Airways Inc’) is in familiar company, with fellow Open Handset Alliance member Qualcomm also present on the roll-call. 

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Slow development milestones for Android have previously been blamed on Google’s $10m coding “prizefund” forcing app creation undercover; could the truth be that the platform is simply not ready for primetime release?  That’s the strident criticism from developer Adam MacBeth, who has found the SDK toolkit to be riddled with bugs, poorly implemented code and a general absence of support from Google themselves.

“Functionality is not there, is poorly documented or just doesn’t work. It’s clearly not ready for prime time” Adam MacBeth

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The FCC isn’t the only organisation sitting on a newly-available chunk of spectrum; UK media regulator Ofcom is in a similar situation, with the ongoing switch-over from analogue to digital TV - set to be completed by 2012 - freeing up enough frequency space for a “nationwide mobile network”.  Ofcom have confirmed that they’re watching the US auction process closely, perhaps hoping that, should it be the success the FCC are expecting, they will have a similar experience when they set out their stall come 2009.

“We have a lot of interest in innovation and talk to the FCC regularly … We would be interested to discover if Google have an interest in the UK.  They are bidding in the US and we are extremely interested [in that]“ Ed Richards, CEO, Ofcom

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It might just be Seasonal Affective Disorder, but paranoia and dark soothsaying seem to be the moods of the moment with analysts and industry professionals muttering worried concerns about Google’s long-term plans and the state of the open-source market.  While the original Android announcement - of a mobile platform built on open-source foundations that would promote flexibility and perhaps even make good on the “write once, run anywhere” mantra developers have long been promised - prompted excitement, the recent release of LiPS’ open-specifications has reminded everyone of the flipside of flexibility.  Namely, that everybody involved needs to sign up to the same standards and cooperate. 

“It’s unlikely that Android would happen to comply with LiPS 1.0 … At the end of the day, confused customers don’t buy — and confused developers don’t write apps. Then you have a fragmented ecosystem” Bill Hughes, analyst, In-Stat

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Android has the traditional carriers unnerved at the prospect of a rapidly evolving business model - unnerved enough for historically closed Verizon Wireless to let down the CDMA drawbridge, even - with open-source software promising to flood the market with low-cost, highly adapted cellular devices and advertising revenue supplanting monthly contracts and expensive add-ons.  Yet some believe this upheaval is merely the beginning; Linux software provider Wind River Systems dispatched their chief marketing officer, John Bruggeman, to talk to ZDNet’s Dana Gardner about not only the advancing role of geo-specific search and advertising, but the future of Android as a platform for mobile devices and the successful software that’s to run on it.

“You’ve got your phone. And, I know physically where that [phone's] IP address is. You are around the corner from Starbucks. Now, is Starbucks going to be willing to pay a premium to get you to drive or walk around the corner? Or, I know you’re sitting in the airport terminal. All the possibilities become very powerful concepts” John Bruggerman, Wind River Systems

With Google already experimenting with mobile adverts, and Microsoft this week launching both banner and text adverts on their MSN Mobile portal, it seems a safe bet that the business model is set to evolve.  Yet as eWeek’s Clint Boulton points out, consumers already consider banners passé and are fearful that the adverts will “clutter the tiny screens” of their devices.  The key difference will be targeting promotional content so that it is both personally and situationally specific enough to be of interest (rather than frustration) to the user, and cost effective to the company funding the advert who is, in effect, subsidising the user’s connection.

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Nokia has hit back at Google’s Android platform, with CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo dismissing the Open Handset Alliance’s OS launch with the suggestion that the Finnish company themselves have already trodden much of the software ground Google and partners are currently bringing attention to: “conceptually, we could have made that announcement a long time ago.”  In fact, with their announcement of the Ovi internet-services project - that has recently clinched the support of Vodafone, already a vocal critic of Android - that will combine their music and mapping services, as well as hints of geo-targeted advertising, their position as chief rival to the Google OS seems increasingly cemented.

“Mobile phones have two qualities that PCs don’t have: they’re always with you, and they tell other people where you are” Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia

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Although some are predicting high standards of device security with Android, and the team working on the platform are busy publicising the high-level architecture that puts security under the remit of the Linux processes rather than VM, that hasn’t stopped anti-virus companies issuing ominous warnings about a spike in cellphone malware once handsets start hitting the market.  SMobile Systems, who are behind the SecurityShield anti-virus and malware package already available for Symbian, Palm, Blackberry and Windows Mobile systems, have today announced not only their concerns that Android’s Linux-base will more easily facilitate virus authors, but that they’re developing a retail product to help prevent against it.

“Once millions of consumers get these new devices into their hands, the thousands of hackers out there will turn their attention to the Google powered phones … The Google Phone platform will enable users to more easily access the Internet and download applications, which is great - but it will also encourage the hacking community to make new and more virulent strains of attacks” Rick Roscitt, CEO, SMobile Systems

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